Despicable Me – Movie Review

There is a $3 movie theater in my town that shows movies that have been out for long enough that they are no longer in the regular movie theaters. It's a great way to see movies on the big screen! Yeah, you need to wait for awhile, but it's still better than DVD, and if you bring some snacks in your purse (popcorn is expensive!) you have a cheap date.

Ok, so my cheap date is usually my brother. My hubby and I have a very different taste in movies! Love him anyway. Fortunately my brother and I have similar likes, and we occasionally have "brother-sister" dates.

When I first saw the advertisement for "Despicable Me," I thought it looked pretty funny. I love anything that takes your normal stereotypes and twists them, and the thought of a bad guy who has a soft heart? Priceless!

The movie was just as good, and better, than I had expected.

The basic concept is you have this bad guy, Gru, who wants to make a name for himself. He always has the nagging voice of his mother in the back of his head, telling him he's not good enough, and he's tried for a long time to prove her wrong. Things keep going wrong, but this time he's convinced he's got a fool proof plan, and he's going to steal the moon!

To steal the moon he needs a shrink-ray, which he steals, and is then stolen from him. His nemesis has the shrink ray and he can't find a way into his fortress/home, until he sees the orphan's that is. There are three adorable orphans selling cookies and those are apparently his nemesis' weakness.

Gru comes up with a truly evil plan that involves adopting the three little orphans. That's where everything goes wrong.

I can't really blame him for losing his heart to these orphans. They are truly adorable! Agnes, the littlest, is my favorite. She's so cute! I would adopt her and take her home any day.

I'll let you watch the movie to find out exactly what Gru's plan is, and how it all goes down. I really recommend watching it! I laughed hysterically the whole way through! In fact – insert embarrassed grin here – I laughed harder and louder than the little kids. Then again…so did my brother!

One thing that amazed me was that Gru is played by Steve Carrell. I don't usually like his acting, too crass, but he did an incredible job playing Gru! I didn't recognize his voice at all and his accent was great!

Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee

Buy it Now!

Black Unicorn (Ibooks Fantasy Classics)

"Black Unicorn" is part of a series of books called "Dragonflight." Each book in the Dragonflight series is written by a different author, and dedicated to one of the major themes in fantasy. This one, obviously, deals with unicorns!

"Black Unicorn" takes a rather different approach than most to the subject of unicorns. A young girl named Tanaquil lives in in the desert with her mother, and a few servants. Her mother is a sorceress, and that can cause some rather strange circumstances at times! The tap sometimes produces flowers instead of water, random objects come to life, and some of the creatures around the castle gain extra intelligence.

One of these creatures is called a peeve, and it has fascination for bones. One day it brings a sparkly bone to Tanaquil, and she becomes utterly fascinated by it. Together the two of them search for the rest of the skeleton, unbury it, and then Tanaquil assembles it to show it's original form, a unicorn.

Through a series of entertaining circumstances, the unicorn comes back to life, and that's when things get REALLY interesting!